41. Hail

Isaiah 28:15,17. [They said] “we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves”. . . . . [But the Lord says] “I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet; the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies”.

The teaching here is clear enough. All lies will eventually be unmasked, and truth will win the day. But why should the Lord speak of using HAIL to bring this about? See how it appears in Rev.16:21 – “And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.” Literal hail this size falling on people would kill them instantly, but here we are told that it only produced blasphemy – they were hiding under whopping great lies and cursed God for being found out!

The English language has separate symbols for letters and numbers, but Hebrew and Greek uses letters for both. Hence any Greek word may also have a numerical value. The Greek for TRUTH is ALETHEIA, and for HAIL is CHALAZA. Numerical values are, respectively, 64 and 640. Could this be a cryptic message to show why God chose to use symbolic hail to sweep away the refuge of lies? Just another little snack of “hidden manna”?

About Arthur Eedle

Arthur was born in 1931, and became a Christian in 1948. At London University he gained a 2nd honours degree in Physics. He went on to get a Teaching Diploma, and throughout his career life taught physics in England, Kenya, and Hong Kong. Coupled with his love of science, he was a keen student of Greek and Hebrew, and gave many lectures on Biblical subjects. Read more